This invention relates to vehicle displays and, more particularly, to a vehicle lens assembly having a polarizer and a light retarder for reducing vehicle occupant glare.
Vehicle displays, such as instrument clusters having a speedometer and a tachometer instrument, typically display important vehicle information to the occupants of the vehicle. Conventional vehicle displays typically include a housing that supports a circuit board. One or more light sources are typically mounted on the circuit board to illuminate a display surface within the housing, to power the instruments, and to illuminate the instruments. A clear, transparent lens is mounted on the front of the housing between the vehicle occupants and the illuminated display surface to protect the display surface and instruments.
Selected vehicle displays utilize a smoked lens mounted on the front of the housing instead of the clear lens. In addition to protecting the display surface and instruments, the smoked lens provides a desirable appearance (i.e., a smoked lens effect). To produce the smoked lens effect, conventional smoked lens are heavily tinted to obscure the appearance of the instruments when the vehicle is turned off such that the instruments are only minimally visible to a vehicle occupant. When the vehicle is on, the light sources illuminate the instruments and are visible to the vehicle occupant through the smoke lens.
Generally, to maximize the smoked lens effect it is desirable to prevent light from the surrounding environment from entering through the smoked lens and reflecting off of the display surface. Conventional smoked lenses allow the reflected light to be transmitted back through the smoked lens to the vehicle occupant. This may undesirably increase the visibility of the instruments when the vehicle is turned off, and diminish the smoked lens effect.
Accordingly, there is a need for a vehicle instrument cluster lens assembly that prevents light reflected off of the display surface from being transmitted back through a lens to a vehicle occupant to provide a more desirable smoked lens effect.